Al UstadhZein l`AbdinAlamoodyClassical
Swahili Songs and Instrumental Music from the Kenya Coast

Zein l'Abdin was born in
1939 on the Island of Lamu on the northern Kenya coast. His father was a
weil-known patron of the arts, himself an accomplished player of the old Swahili
lute called kibangala. Zein's father often hosted wealthy merchants arriving
from Arabia with the monsoon trade winds. The young Zein witnessed sumptuous
feasts and nights of music and dance, when the lute players and musicians
accompanying the Arabic crews measured themselves with Ali Baskuta,
Zein's maternal uncie, and Lamu's leading 'ud player of the time.

The happy youth in Lamu ended abruptly when Zein's father died in
1951, leaving the twelve year old kid to the care of the extended family. He
was sent to Mombasa to attend school there, but before long family troubles and
missing finance lead to his leaving school and taking up work at the port of
Mombasa. The seed of music was planted though: Zein soon picked up the lute,
practicing and studying on his own after his day-time job in the port.

In 1960, at last with his own 'ud,
Zein embarked on his professional career. Besides playing the usual wedding
gigs, he was soon to start recording for local Mombasa record companies like
Mzuri. Zein's prowess on the lute and his witty self-composed songs quickly
earned him a good reputation. He was invited to play weddings and concerts up
and down the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts, and farther inland, up to Nairobi and
Kampala in Uganda.

From
the late 1960s onwards Zein became something like the musical father of the
Mombasa taarab scene, with all of today's famous musicians, at
one point or another in their career, passing through Zein's group. The
Zein Musical Party thus featured the voices of Maulidi, Zuhura
and Malika, Mohamed Mbwana's harmonium or organ, or Bakari
Salim's accordion. Zein's groups in the 1980s - in typical Mombasa taarab
style - branched out to include violin, accordion, keyboard, bass guitar and a
percussion section. He has since moved back to basics, and a more classical
approach in the old Lamu Tradition.

Zein's
current group is a re-union with his erstwhile band members Omari Swaleh
and Anasi Mbwana, Mombasa's best percussion team. Zein taught them both
when they entered the music scene in late the 1970s. Omari's father was also a
member of Zein's group, and the young Omari learned at an early age accompanying
his father to the frequent wedding gigs. After leaving Zein for a time in the
late 1980s, he became a featured musician and bandmaster of Malika's ensemble.

Anasi
Mbwana, who is also an accomplished solo singer, left Zein's group in the
mid-1980s to join
Maulidi Musical Party, then Mombasa's premier wedding orchestra. The
early 1990s brought him together with his former rhythm partner Omari, when he
joined Malika's group as well. For the past couple of years Omari and Anasi
have worked for both Zein and Malika. They are also in high demand as studio
musicians backing visiting singers from up and down the coast, who come to
record for Mombasa's thriving cassette industry.

The Zein Song-Book - handwritten

The
musical style of Zein and Party is called taarab by the Swahili
people of the East African Coast. This is less a stylistic description, since
many personal and regional styles exist. Among the Swahili taarab
refers to a festive occasion which commonly closes marriage celebrations, and at
which this type of music is played.

Going
out to his wedding gigs Zein carries his handwritten book of more than 400 song
lyrics. All taarab songs follow the formal rules of traditional Swahili
poetry, with intricate rhyming schemes. Many of the songs in Zein's book are
his own compositions; others are given to him by contemporary poets. Together
with the famous poet and cultural historian Sheikh Ahmed Nabhany Zein
has unearthed and revived many old songs dating back to the last century and the
beginning of this century.

As with the lyrics,
so Zein's music also follows the traditions of the northern coast, by including
the rhythms and melodies of many old Swahili ngoma
(music-song-dance) events like twari, goma, vugo, together with
contemporary dance rhythms like kumbwaya
or chakacha.